Where Sick Breaks Skin, Sunflowers Will Grow
by perforatedink
Summary: It has been 52 years since Edward left Bella alone in the woods for her own good. He decides to check on her once she has turned 70 years old and has lived a long, normal human life. Except what he finds isn't what he had in mind.
1. Chapter 1

The clock ticked away the seconds as everything else fell silent. Edward wasn't sure where he was. His eyes were well adjusted to the darkness of some attic he has crawled into years ago; spider-webs hanging from the ceiling, and rat feces scattered every corner of the room. A thick layer of dust covered the surface of everything; a human set of lungs wouldn't have survived this claustrophobic space.

His jet black eyes fixated on the clock, anticipating the midnight chime he longed for fifty-two years. If a cold one's heart could beat, his would be skyrocketing right now. Five minutes to midnight, each second dragged for so long. He went over his plan again in his head, a plan he had been going over for the past fifty-two years. In five minutes it would be September 13TH, Bella's 70th birthday. _If she were still alive_ , he thought to himself, and tried to swallow but couldn't.

Edward promised himself that he would return to the cloudy little town when Bella has lived a full, long, and most importantly, _normal_ human life, but not to haunt her life again and bring his black demons into it. He would return just to check on her, to see that she's well and safe and happy. Not to interfere. She would never know he was there.

He wondered where she was, and which route in life she had taken. Where did she go after graduating from Forks high school? Did she have a good career? Grow old with a normal man and have children? He could have sworn he felt his heart ache at the last thought. Would it be Mike Newton? Or someone she has met later in her life? She could even possibly have grandchildren by now.

He would just check on her for one day then he would go back to his nothingness, for seeing her face just once more would fuel him for the next decade. He hated the thought of Bella having passed away, but he had to consider this possibility. If that were the case, he would take the next flight to Italy, for he refused to exist in a world where Bella didn't. He wondered if even when he was ash, would he somehow still feel the torture of her loss?

And the clock bellowed the most healing sound, washing away the mountain of pain he was buried under—that it made him gasp, made him dizzy.

Edward travelled most of the night, running full speed for the first time in fifty-two years, his legs never once needing rest. He ran until the familiar forest spread out around him in a labyrinth of identical trees, but he was at perfect ease in the green maze, never showing doubt about his direction. He breathed in the smell of damp earth combined with old fallen leaves, and the trees; each tree had its own smell.

He made his way from the forest to Bella's front yard, or at least what used to be hers, for he could not sense any presence in the house. Bella's dark bedroom window was at the west of the house facing the yard, the door to his only sanctuary. Edward crossed the open yard and scaled the face of the house in one second. Dangling from the eave of the window in one hand, he looked through the glass, and his breath stopped.

Bella's room was empty. The only thing that was left of it was the blue paint peeling off the small bedroom walls. He slid the window open and eased himself through it. The house echoed his steps for it was unfurnished and completely vacant.

Edward scanned every room and concluded that no human has lived in this house for years, for the walls of the living room were vandalized with graffiti and some of the kitchen windows were shattered into pieces.

Edward made his way back into Bella's bedroom and lifted up the floorboard where he once hidden her birthday present and a photo of them, and it was still there as he left it. Edward gently unfolded the picture and looked at Bella's face, and it was more beautiful than he remembered. He closed his eyes and Bella's face lingered behind his lids, smiling at him. He folded the picture and tucked it into his pocket, then made his way out of the house through the front door. A pedestrian spotted Edward exiting the house, _"Eh, no respect for the dead, kids these days!"_ he thought to himself as he looked at Edward then flinched away.

There is only one cemetery in the small-populated town of Forks. Edward made his way there, positive that it is where Sheriff Charlie Swan would be buried. He scanned each gravestone, some names he recognized; the Crowley's, the Newton's, the Mallory's, the Stanley's, and he let out an unnecessary breath of relief each time a stone did not read "Isabella" or "Swan". But just then his eyes fell upon a grave with dried out white roses placed neatly on the stone that read, " _Here lies the body Sheriff Charlie Swan_ ".

Bella's father passed away, just as Edward predicted. It would mean that Bella would have moved away, perhaps to stay with her mother and stepfather. He would have to find a way to track her down. But just then, Edward looked at the gravestone next to Charlie's; the gravestone had sunk into the soft soil giving it the appearance of shrinking. The engraved words, so weathered by a century of rain, sat just above the level of the ground cover plants that sprawled over the dirt. Edward reached out, at first with hesitant fingers that he ran over the faded black engraved lettering. Ivy crept over its face in a last insult to her memory,

 _Here lies the body of Isabella Marie Swan_

 _Beloved daughter and friend_

 _13_ _th_ _September 1989 – 15_ _th_ _September 2005_

Edward did not understand these words, for it wouldn't register in his head. He had read it over and over; surely there has been a mistake. _Isabella swan,_ _15_ _th_ _September 2005._ For the first time since he could remember, his knees felt weak and wobbly. Edward sat on the wet soil and pressed his forehead against his knees. _2005._ Edward has locked himself away until Bella's 70th birthday only to learn that she has died right after he left, every urge to go back to Forks and beg her for forgiveness he fought was useless, everything he did to ensure she had a long, safe human life was wasted. She hasn't lived at all, not even a day of the life he wanted for her.

The pain that Edward had prepared for was very much underestimated, for it hit me like fire boiling up his insides. He craved an external pain just as strong to balance it out, to shut it off. He deserved such pain. The Volturi, the largest and most powerful coven of vampires, would be capable of torturing him, and ending his meaningless existence, they are the only important thing left to seek.

Edward spent the next few hours wandering around Forks, desperately searching for any thought of the Swans, but the dead have been long forgotten and the citizens of Forks have long moved on. He made his way to the local library for the newspaper archive, _"Isabella Swan",_ he typed into the screen, not feeling like he was in his body anymore, like his mind was in another realm.

 **Skeletal Remains Identified As Missing 18-Year-Old Isabella Swan**

 ** _Skeletal remains found Friday in a remote part of the forest belong to Isabella Marie Swan, the 18-year-old daughter of Sheriff Charlie Swan who went missing on 14th September 2005, County Sheriff Charlie Swan said._**

 ** _Swan said dental records confirmed the remains to be Isabella's._**

 ** _"The body was found in a remote location and didn't get there by accident," he said._**

 ** _One of the volunteer searchers came across a human skull and bones Friday afternoon while looking for the missing teen. Despite dozens of interviews, police have not arrested a suspect. Swan's death remains a mystery._**

Everything else was a blur, it all happened so fast. Edward unconsciously managed to make it on the next flight to Italy, not thinking of what he's doing. He was on a plane with over 300 passengers onboard, their thoughts were screaming at him but it didn't matter. The ache of thirst in his throat for he hadn't hunted prior to this also didn't matter. He let it all consume him, but it was not enough to distract him from his thoughts, from the pain. Bella was dead because of him. He didn't leave her to have a normal human life that she deserved, he left her behind vulnerable in the woods, alone and scared, he left her flesh and bones to rot and decay.

"I would like to speak with your Maters for I will be requiring your services today" Edward said in a monotone to Felix, a cloaked vampire that worked for the Volturi.

"I'm afraid our master Aro isn't in the country, but not to worry, you shall speak with Gabriella, she will contact Master Aro on your behalf." Felix's smooth voice whispered menacingly.

Edward followed Felix for what seemed like an eternity of corridors and tunnels, they made their way underground and Felix gestured Edward to enter through a door to a vacant chamber where he would meet his fate, where it would hopefully all end.

Edward made his way inside the empty courtroom; the silence was too loud to endure. It made his thoughts clearer, more painful. He needed it to end soon. He scanned beyond the door for any presence, but it was all quiet, allowing his thoughts to amplify.

"How may I assist you today, Edward Cullen?" spoke an unexpected voice, one that he never imagined he would hear again.

He looked up to the source of the voice, and there sat a woman looking at him, her dark hair tangled and wild around her pale, young and, like his, frozen in time, face.

"Bella?" he said and couldn't believe how quick they were, he didn't feel a thing. They are very good.

Her lips tightened into a fierce line, and everything else happened so fast. Edward was on the ground with the woman clutching his neck with her arm. She was snarling, the sound ripping and tearing from her, glaring at Edward with red baleful eyes.

" _How do you know my name?"_ she whispered through gritted teeth.


	2. Chapter 2

**14** **th** **September, 2005.**

Once Bella reached the edge of the woods, she stood in front of the tightly knit trees and stared deep into the darkness ahead. More time had passed than she realized. It was now nightfall, but she seemed to have lost her sense of time. She pushed herself deeper into the rainy woods, the damp earth hugged her boots and gently released them with each step.

Her thoughts were accelerating inside her head. She wants them to slow so she can breathe. They started out as thin cellophane, something her fingers can pierce breathing holes in. But the deeper she went into the woods, the more her thoughts were becoming like a deluge of ice water surrounding her every limb, creeping higher until it passes through her lungs. _Edward is gone_. _He is truly gone._

She was now hyperventilating, her brain deprived of oxygen and full of panic cells _. The Cullen's are all gone_. And that is when the attack becomes absolute, shutting her body down as fast as punching a biochemical reset button.

Bella awoke on the damp earth covered in dirt. She underestimated the utter blackness of nighttime in the woods; the trees were black trunks against a bluish charcoal sky. She saw a figure move between the bare branches that spiked through the sky, but there were only small sounds of rustling bushes and the howl of the wind.

The figure was not her mere imagination, for within a blink of an eye, it was standing inches from her face. "Edward?" Bella whispered, though she began to breathe the cool air more rapidly. The darkness pressed in on her from all sides and her body screamed for her to run.

But she was too weak, and she wasn't sure she wanted to fight the darkness. Did it matter anymore? She looked up to make out a bulky dark-skinned man with dreadlocks that run down his neck. She wanted to ask him who he was, but her tongue felt heavy and out of energy. He swung her up in his hard, cold arms as if she was nothing more than a ragdoll.

 _Fight him,_ said a voice inside her head that wasn't hers. Adrenaline floods her system like it's on an intravenous drip, her body wants to either run fast for the hills or work to find weaponry, but instead she stays right where she was.

"You will make a very special treat", said the man as he covered her mouth and nose with a cloth that smelled of chloroform. Bella looked up at his face, though his features blended well with the darkness, his eyes however were a shining crimson red, and Bella was no longer conscious.


End file.
